Annual Student Housing survey to close soon

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The 2019 National Student Housing Survey has been open for the last few weeks, offering a prize to win up to £500 in weekly prize draws. Additional runner up prizes include amounts between £25 and £50, also to be drawn. The survey will remain open until Week 10, closing at midnight on Friday 30 November.

The entirety of the quiz is anonymised and takes 12 minutes to complete. The survey takes into account people in both university and private accommodation.

The Survey is sent to and completed by thousands of students across the UK. The results are used to help try and understand how student housing in the UK is being managed and the standards of living. Housing for students in York includes on-campus college accommodation, privately owned halls such as the Student Castle and Vita Student, and HMOs owned by private landlords.

Awards are also drawn up from the answers that students provide, with 13 categories of awards. In the 2018 results, the best student halls award went to Edge Hill University, with Lancaster University and Bangor University as the runners up. Edge Hill also won the Best Value for Money award in 2018. Lancaster University was a finalist in two other categories; Best Customer Service and Best Specialist Accommodation.

In 2017, the University of York won the award for Best Student Broadband. In 2018, the winner of the Best Private Accommodation went to the company Host, which offers accommodation at 19 universities across the UK. Their Leeds branch offers premium suites from £144 pounds per week, which has an ensuite bedroom averaging 13.2 square meters in size and a shared kitchen.

The National Student Housing Survey was established in 2007, and has surveyed 189989 students, across 68 University Partners and 30 Private Hall Providers. The survey also offers tailoring to suit the scenarios at different institutions. The aim is to "learn how students' experience measures up to national, local and competitor benchmarks." Heidi Fraser-Krauss, Director of Information Services at the University of York, is quoted on the website saying "It really supports all the hard work we've been doing in the team. Knowing that it's based on what students really want and them telling somebody else that, is just the best. It's the best way you could get an award".

Accommodation Services have sent an email to all York students inviting them to complete the survey. The University has taken responsibility for the running of more campus accommodation. As was reported in the last edition of Nouse, they have bought out the private shares in Constantine from Evans Property Group, becoming the sole owners of the college. Given this increased stake in student housing the results of the survey will surely be of more interest to the University than ever.

Founded in 1964, making us the oldest society on campus, Nouse has consistently provided the student voice for generations of York students and an important critical voice of the University and the Students’ Union.